1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power control technique for controlling a power source of an apparatus used when a job executing unit executes a job.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, various kinds of power control techniques are known in relation to a job executing unit. In a most typical technique, the power source is turned on or off at a predetermined power on or power off time. In this technique, maximum processing times of all of jobs to be scheduled are predicted and a power off time is set based on the predicted time in order to prevent the power from being turned off during the execution of the job. Therefore, a heavy burden is loaded on an administrator and there is a possibility that the power is turned off during the execution of the job in case of erroneous prediction.
From these reasons, a proposal has been made in Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication (JP-A-Showa 58-168118: first conventional example), in which a timer control unit is provided to output a disconnection request signal when a current time indicates a predetermined power off time, and a disconnection permission signal outputting unit is provided to output a disconnection permission signal when there is no job on execution. A power source is turned off when the disconnection request signal is outputted and the disconnection permission signal is outputted. Thus, according to the first conventional example, the power is not turned off during the execution of the job. However, the power source cannot be turned off, if the time does not reach a predetermined power off time, even though all of the jobs to be scheduled are completed before the predetermined power off time. Thus, the power is unnecessarily consumed until the predetermined power off time.
Also, another conventional technique has been known in Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication (JP-A-Heisei 5-19907: second conventional example), in which the power source is not turned off, when a current time is immediately before a next power on time if even a power source turning-off factor is detected. Thus, according to the second conventional example, it is possible to avoid a situation in which a power on process cannot be carried out due to delay of a start time of a power off process, thereby preventing a system operation to be scheduled. However, in the second conventional example, there is no description of what are the power off factors.
In conjunction with the above description, a system power controller is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication (JP-A-Heisei 9-282057). In this conventional example of the system power controller, power supply to a computer system containing peripheral units is controlled. A resource control unit produces a power supply control plan every unit of the computer system based on a job execution plan and an operation result of the job. A job execution monitor section monitors an execution situation of the job to be executed by the computer system and notifies state data of each unit. A system control section corrects the power supply control plan based on the state data according to necessity and instructs power supply to each unit. A power supply control unit instructs the connection and disconnection of each unit in response to the instruction from the system control section, and the supply and non-supply of the power.
Also, a job execution time determining system of an automatic operation system is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication (JP-A-Heisei 10-333767). In this conventional example, the job execution time determining system includes an input unit, a processing unit for processing a data supplied from the input unit, a storage unit, a power control unit turns on/off a power supply of a computer based on the data, and a system clock to notify a time, a date. The processing unit includes the following units or sections. A system operation data registering section registers on the storage unit, system operation data containing a power on time and a power off time in units of months, weeks, and days from the input unit. A job data registering section registers on the storage unit, a job data containing resource data necessary to execute a job with an execution condition from the input unit. A calendar data registering section registers on the storage unit, a calendar data containing operation days and non-operation days of the computer in units of year, month, week, and day from the input unit. A schedule data generating section takes out the job data containing the execution condition from a date notified from the system clock and the calendar data from the storage unit, and registers on the storage unit, the job data containing the execution condition from a system operation time zone obtained from the system operation data. A job execution section executes a job with as execution condition, the time notified from the system clock and the time from the job data. A power supply control section instruct of supply and non-supply of power to the power control unit based on the power on time and power off time of the computer obtained from the system operation data.